New SD Pork Process Plant Faces Opposition
Expanding Pork Processing: How Producers Are Doing it for Themselves
A new pork plant is planned for South Dakota that could be up and operational by 2025. Wholestone began in 2016 as a vision of Minnesota-based Pipestone, a company that manages sow farms and has production and marketing services designed to support family farming operations. They’ve also evolved in producer-owned processing.
Wholestone Farms wants to build a more than $500 million plant on this 170 acre parcel and process nearly 3 million hogs annually, expanding capacity beyond their Nebraska facility.
Mitchell, South Dakota pork producer Brad Greenway says, “The Fremont (Nebraska) plant, what is was is the 200 or so producers that own that plant or farmers you know had more pigs than what that plant can handle and so looking at how do you expand and how do you take that next step, and this is that next step.”
Brad and his son Brent are farmer owners and he says he’s been surprised by the pushback on the project. "The Wholestone Farms packing plant is truly farmer owned and very local as much as you can get. The farmers bring the pigs to this and they’re also owners of the plant.”
Brent says Wholestone’s integrated model allowed them to add another barn to the family operation, so he could come back to the farm. “I used to work in manufacturing facilities and through the expansion of the amount of pigs that we raise I’ve been able to come back on the farm. And that’s one thing in order to have the opportunity for young farmers to come back to the farm there has to be a place for the product to go, whether that’s crops or livestock.”
Glenn Muller, Executive Director of the South Dakota Pork Producers Council says the project would add shackle space and encourage growth in the region’s swine industry. Glenn Muller, SD Pork Producers Council Executive Director, “We’re expanding our harvesting capacities in the area which is definitely going to have an impact as producers can see that they have an outlet close by and eliminate some of the transportation issues that we have.”
And that would increase also increase competition, which Hunter Roberts, South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources Secretary says is greatly needed. He says, “We’ve seen those industries way too consolidated so to have like Wholestone a new party come in that is going to you know take a different model to look at this I think it’s encouraging to see.”
Muller says the opposition is based on water quality and some of the odor issues associated with the outdated Smithfield plant. He says “Perceptions are that we’re going to have a replica of that building and some of the technology will be the same but the ability to control the environment and air quality is going to be entirely different with this new facility.” In fact, the Wholestone plant will be sustainable and utilize the newest technology.
And it has the potential to add 1,100 jobs and millions of dollars to the Sioux Falls economy. Greenway says, “That’s what we’re proud about, not only what the plant will look like what it will bring for jobs and what it will bring for all of those things that come with more employment here.”
